Rants on Cycling and on Life:
Photos of people and bicycles that pass in front of my camera

1.11.2008

a good day on the bike... a good day with the camera

today was a good day on the biketoday was a good day with the cameratoday was even a good day at workbut I choose not to blog about work

the morning was wet and warmhaving the opportunity to take my dog into the woods each morning gives me insight into both the temperature of the day and the condition of the trails

the trails are muddyno mountain biking on this day or in the days of the approaching weekendyet the warm weather offers the draw of getting out on the bikegetting out on the bike in one capacity or the other

getting out of work a few minutes early made it easy to get out on the bike this afternoon

before the afternoon there was the morningthe morning offered a pretty standard straight path into workonly with a slight deviation through Malcolm X Parkthe stairs were not part of my morning agendabut I ran into Libbey on her morning commuteso we shared the morning and rode through the park

once in the park I rode ahead of libbey so that I could snap some photographsgot a few shots and got back on the bike myselfthen we split lanes of city traffic for a few more blocksuntil I went towards my office and she went the other way towards hers

the warm weather seemed to have the city extra activitythe ground was still wet but it has stopped rainingin my short minutes out grabbing lunch I saw all sorts of cyclists dashing around townI did my thing with the cameraI felt like a fisherman overjoyed that the fish were jumping into the boatthere were cyclists all around methe timing was rightI snapped all sorts of pictures of all sorts of people and their bicyclesthe tasks of the week and the tasks of the day were achieved in such a way that leaving a few minutes early seemed logicaldressed and ready to ride I called Cargo Mikecalled to check to see if he was free for a casual spin before the day lost all of its lightsure enough... he had a few more drops and would be free in a half hour to forty-five minuteswe agreed on a meeting point and I got on my bike

with my camera around my neck I rode up and around The Capital Buildingon the move I shot some pictureshaving already taken so many photos I focused more on ridingthe meeting time also dictated a healthy paceup and around the Capital Building headed back towards downtownas I approached The Treasury Building I caught a glimpse of AZstill on the move with the camera in hand I snapped a few shotsthe subject was more worth my attentionthis subject more than the other cyclists I had seenafter all... it is AZ

when AZ pulled off at The Department of Commerce I pulled off as wellthere was a quick exchange I made mention of my wanting to write an article for Spokes magazine about his being awarded The Marcus Cook Awardthen he got back to workwhile I got back on my bike

not much delay still on schedulewith a slightly modified trajectory I worked my way across downtown towards Georgetownthen up the hill deeper into georgetownright on time or maybe two minutes late I arrivedmike came out with some water and his fixed gearwe talked about our routethe mention of Mount Vernon was rethoughtas it was starting to get late and we would certainly lose light and time before getting anywhere close to mount vernon

we worked it across the georgetown neighborhoods, past georgetown university hospital, then out of georgetown into palisadeswe talked as we rodecargo mike listened as I dragged him down my memory lane of that area of townhe heard a good deal but was lucky to miss my tales of snowboarding at battery kimble in the mid 80's

then through a palisades neighborhood onto the capital crescent trailthe leafless trees exposed houses across the river that I did not know were there

on the capital crescent trail the commuter traffic surrounded uswe road a social pace side by side

the light was starting to get dimwe kept a steady clip but nothing that would award us the king of the trail awardat one point as we approached bethesda I recognized an oncoming formit was my brother marc commuting home from workwe said hellosbut with the fading light and the headlamp with a dead battery I did not alter my pacea minute later and my brother was between us on his swank new Ridley road bike

we stopped for a quick exchange then continued on our way

the light was dropping fastmike was a good listener as I rambled on about growing up playing on the train tracks where the path is now pavedbethesda was once a sleepy townnot the semi urban suburb it is today

sure enough we were almost out of lightdusk was upon us and we were under litewe still had to get home

we could have cut our trajectory shortbut we held our coursethe few blinking lights we had would be better than nothing as we entered the canopy of rock creek parkmost of the traffic was coming the opposite direction which made things a tad easiernow the commuter traffic was carslots of carsand a few bicycleslots of cars in a rush to get homea few bicycles with lights... a few bicycles with less lights than us

with no great incident we got to my mount pleasant homewe said a quick goodbye as cargo mike still had a few miles to get home

our ride was solidit is a good loopwith my warm up before our meeting tagged along to our little circuit I managed to get in a half decent ridenot the epic road ride that so many will be attacking this weekendbut a solid ride just the samea solid ride that was also a social ride

my body and soul feel better after that ridemy shoulders and legs are also a little soresore in a good way

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